2014 Porsche 918 Spyder Enters the Next Phase of Development

"What we are doing with the 918 Spyder is redefining driving fun, efficiency and performance," said Wolfgang Hatz, Member of the Executive Board Research and Development of Porsche AG. Hatz certainly seems to be on to something as Porsche's latest photos of the 918 Spyder further enhance our sense of excitement for the German company's latest halo car. Spotted in its country of origin testing, the 918 Spyder is the spiritual successor to the Carrera GT and features, like its predecessor, a removable top.

Porsche's latest supercar is a plug-in hybrid and utilizes a 570hp 4.6-liter V8 coupled with two electric motors, one complementing the rear and rated at 120hp and one for the front rated at 110hp for a grand total output of around 800hp. The 918 Spyder prototypes seen here in the photos are sporting camouflage reminiscent of the Porsche 917 racing cars, which is supposed to signal the near completion of the latest Porsche model. They make use of a new full carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) monocoque with unit carrier, fully adaptive aerodynamics, adaptive rear-axle steering and the upward-venting "top pipes" exhaust system.

Porsche plans on beginning production of the 2014 918 Spyder in September of 2013 with 918 units planned. It could carry a price tag of around $850,000 and should begin deliveries in either late 2013 or early 2014. Both Porsche and our spy photographers sent us pictures of the prototype, so we published them all for you to see. It seems that Porsche realized spy shots were being taken while they were out testing. Their answer was to simply release their own images.